Earlier this Year, Two Judges in the District of Columbia Issued Seemingly Contradictory Opinions on the Enforceability of Intra-EU Awards Post-Achmea/Komstroy—Which One Was Right and How do You Think the District of Columbia Court of Appeals or SCOTUS Would Eventually Decide? - Chapter 6 - Investment Treaty Arbitration and International Law - Volume 17

DR. TODD J. WEILER: Welcome back, everybody. We’re ready for our second panel and I think I need to apologize for the length of the question. Usually, I come up with a concise question. This one isn’t. I’ll read it to you. “Earlier This Year, Two Judges in the District of Columbia Issued Seemingly Contradictory Opinions on the Enforceability of Intra-EU Awards Post-Achmea/Komstroy; Which One Was Right and How Do You Think the District of Columbia Court of Appeals or the SCOTUS Will Eventually Decide?” The cases were Blasket Renewable Investments, LLC v. Spain and 9REN Holding S.A.R.L. v. Spain. To lead us for this panel, we are grateful to have my fellow Canadian, Norton Rose’s own Martin Valasek.

MR. MARTIN VALASEK: Thank you very much, Todd. Is the microphone working properly? I can hear. My name is Martin Valasek. I am a partner and the head of international arbitration for Canada in Norton Rose Fulbright. I’m based in the Montreal office. I wanted to thank the conference co-chairs and Ian, I don’t think you’re technically a co-chair, but our host, for inviting me to moderate this second panel of the day. I’m joined by really terrific authors and excellent panelists, and I’ll introduce them momentarily. But first, let me say a few words about our topic.

Todd has just read the description of Panel 2, so I won’t reread it. I commend the conference organizers for putting this topic on today’s agenda. It’s a complex topic and certainly one that is timely. It also follows really nicely from panel one, as we are dealing in these two opinions, 9REN Holdings and Blasket, with awards issued under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), and specifically awards issued against Spain to compensate investors affected by changes in Spain’s renewable sector. In this panel, we will be dealing with a very different issue from the one that was discussed in Panel 1 which has arisen in this context, and whose origin really are the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Achmea and Komstroy, likely well known to most of you.